This Alternative to the Laptop Ban Would Tighten Airport Security at Low Inconvenience – Daily Signal

When the Islamic State, also known as ISIS, captured Mosul, it also took possession of the modern screening equipment at Mosul’s airport that would allow it to test its new bomb designs.

This previously classified information is thought to be the reason that the Department of Homeland Security barred laptops and other electronics larger than a smartphone from the cabins of incoming flights to the U.S.

The Trump administration is also debating whether or not to expand the ban to European airports. However, expanding the laptop ban to include Europe would be much more costly than the existing ban and would affect up to 65 million people per year.

The benefit of a laptop ban is that it makes it harder to use a bomb on a plane—though terrorists could overcome the ban by traveling from other regions not affected by the ban, or by designing bombs to go off remotely.

On the cost side of the equation, this policy would likely result in several billion dollars in losses to travelers and tourism, as well as increased potential for losses from theft or damage to devices and possible aircraft fires from electronics in the cargo hold.

In terms of alternatives, there seem to be several options.

First, the ban could be expanded even further, excluding large devices from planes altogether and extending the ban globally, as this would undoubtedly increase international security, though at even greater cost.

Second, risk-based screening policies could be applied at checkpoints that allow lower-risk passengers to proceed normally through airport checkpoints, but subject higher-risk individuals and bags to more stringent screening.

Third, an increase in bomb detection capabilities, like bomb-sniffing dogs or bomb detection equipment, could be deployed, though certainly at some cost.

Similarly, airports could improve their baggage screening equipment to stop bombs. Indeed, the Transportation Security Administration is testing new 3D checkpoint scanning technology to do just that.

This technology, called computed tomography, has been used on checked baggage for almost a decade, and it is now small, quiet, and cheap enough to be placed at security checkpoints across the country.

Computed tomography is an example of a potential alternative that the Department of Homeland Security should consider when looking to improve aviation security. Going forward, the department should constantly explore solutions to keep pace with the constantly changing threat environment.